1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a stacking column for receiving and holding a plurality of flat workpieces.
2. Related Art
In just-in-time production and the outsourcing of portions of a production process, major portions of semi-fabricated products and outsourced parts must be shipped from producers to assemblers under strict deadlines. In order to reduce shipping costs, the parts to be delivered must be packaged in a space saving manner and arranged efficiently on some shipping medium. This requirement frequently is not compatible with safe and damage-free transportation.
Specifically, there exists in the automotive industry a need to transport major quantities of similar parts made of sheet metal or glass which are substantially flat. This usually is done in so-called stacking columns, which in turn are arranged in shipping containers. The stacking columns are intended to maintain the flat parts in a uniformly spaced relationship precluding mutual damage.
A drawback of these shipping containers is that the work-pieces cannot be locked or latched in place individually; instead, all of them are locked at the same time. Further, the locking mechanism employed in prior stacking columns makes them unsuitable for the use of robots.
It is the object of the present invention to provide structure permitting workpieces to be locked separately and suited to be loaded and unloaded by means of a robot.
This object is achieved by a stacking column including a plurality of pawls mounted in a frame for movement in pawl bearings and each having a workpiece stop, latch pins adapted to be triggered individually to individually lock the pawls in their workpiece-holding position, and erecting means for erecting a subsequent pawl needed for receiving a workpiece. The erecting means are in the form of a cam and a hammer head on the pawls, with the erecting movement of a preceding ding pawl moving the subsequent pawls to an armed position. In another embodiment of the inventive mechanism, the cams are arranged one behind the other. When the column is being loaded, the workpiece is pushed over the top edge of the frame, with workpiece contact with the workpiece stop causing the pawl to be moved from the armed to its erected position.
After a pawl has been moved to its erected position, the latching pin drops into its latching position in front of the pawl, so that the pawl cannot move back into its lying or armed position.
In order to enable each pawl to be latched individually, each has a latching pin associated with it. The latching pins are mounted for independent movement on a pin shaft. The pin shaft has unlatching cams thereon effective to remove all latching pins from their latching positions in unison. An unlatching lever is provided to turn the pin shaft so as to lift the latching pins from their latching positions.
The inventive structure achieves maximum functionality when oriented horizontally. However, a lateral sloping angle of 90xc2x0 to 45xc2x0 is possible. Modifying the cam to act as a lifting cam will ensure functionality in the range of 0 xc2x0 to 45xc2x0. In this embodiment, the latching mechanism remains the same.
The movable parts xe2x80x94such as the receiving surface, the cam, the latching pins, and the unlatching cam shaftxe2x80x94referably are made of stainless steel.
Further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. However, it should be understood that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.